Proto-typing and Failed Modules

It's been many weeks since last I put fingertip to keys in order to write this blog, and yet my tips have not been sitting idly. I have spent everyday for the last month working on my final piece, as I anticipated this piece has tested me to my limits in a way worthy of a game show. The most taxing part is that I can not create my final piece but instead I must gather and prepare the part which I will then assemble in my final piece. The gathering of parts has also seen their modification, collation and parentification, in this period of prototyping and creating parts which are lesser than their sum I have has some minor set backs. In my past projects I have done my final design and then my sketchbook leaps directly into my final piece as a finished whole. This project will see me changing this approach, This section will explore and deconstruct my failures thus far, after it I plan to take photographs and diarise the final construction process which will take place in my 15 hour exam.

The final piece as I have alluded to will be the sum of several parts, or modules to use the term I believe to be correct, after my project completion I shall describe and evaluate at length each module which will be boring for us both but florisous in the mark department. Some of the modules and sections I have trailed and designed in preparation for the final exam proved to be less than successful, in the interest of not denying my fault I shall explain them now with a series of corresponding images.

At the top of the image is an example of my attempts to incorporate everyday objects into my work. One of the main problems I face was that most of the motors I sources had high RPMs (revolutions per minute) but most of my module require slower motors with greater power, The simple gear box on a hand drill increases revolutions but reduces the power behind each turn, but reversing this I hoped to have a powerful but slow turns drive system, Unfortunately I was unable to find a motor powerful enough to power this drive train however I was able to experiment with a frame which incorporated several materials and what capable of taking a lot of weight and stress.  

To the left and bottom of the screen are prototype motor frames. The final piece used many electric motors which needed to be mounted both securely and with allowance for stress and cooling. The bottom frame uses wood and meccano to make a sturdy but bulky frame, the other frame uses k'nex part to both hold and gear down the motor which was a large but low watt motor which I recovered from a model plane. Both these frame where good in theory but proved too bulky, a lot of the motor brackets I am now using are inspired and have learned from these proto-type ones.